AhlulBayt News Agency - Jordanian security forces mistakenly raided the headquarters of the kingdom’s largest Muslim Brotherhood group on Sunday after confusing it with the offices of an outlawed organization, the government said.
Police raided the Islamic Action Front offices after they “mixed up” the IAF headquarters with those of a nearby, unregistered branch of the Islamist group, according to government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani. He confirmed that the IAF was registered.
The government should “apologize for this action which touched the Islamic Action Front,” IAF spokesman Murad Adaileh said.
The incident has triggered a hail of condemnations by some MB officials who threatened to join the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) if “the government didn’t apologize for this action”.
On Wednesday, a Jordanian official, who spoke anonymously, said the headquarters of the group was sealed because the group is “illegal and not licensed.” The source said “illegal” internal elections had been held secretly within the group.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan split into two groups in March 2015 when a number of the Jordanian Brotherhood members disavowed themselves from the movement originally based in Egypt.
The splinter group continues to be licensed in Jordan.
The other group, which did not initially split from Egypt’s Brotherhood but did later break ranks with it too, was the one that saw its headquarters closed on Wednesday. It remained unauthorized even after splitting from Egyptian Brotherhood.
The members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have been under mounting pressure by the Egyptian government ever since former Egyptian president, Mohammad Morsi, who was affiliated with the movement, was ousted in a military coup led by the then-military chief and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in July 2013.
The Brotherhood was later blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the Cairo officials in a move seen by observers as an attempt to prevent its affiliates from running in elections.
Another senior Jordanian official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the judiciary had ordered the transfer of property from the illegal Brotherhood to the licensed group.
Jordan has recently tightened its crackdown on the Brotherhood, with a Jordanian court sentencing Zaki Bani Rsheid, the deputy leader of the unauthorized branch, to 18 months in prison due to criticizing the United Arab Emirates for blacklisting of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as more than 80 other groups.
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